Pumpkin power: Store your harvest and save seeds

When conditions are spot on for growing pumpkins, there’s potential to be overwhelmed by your harvest. You can swap with neighbours and share with friends, but follow these storage tips and you’ll have pumpkins ready to cook up for months to come.

Storing

After harvesting your pumpkins, inspect each one carefully and set aside any with nicks or damage. These won’t store well, so plan to eat them first.

The next step is to cure the skins of the remaining pumpkins to harden them for storage. You might have heard the old advice to place pumpkins on a tin roof in the sun for a month, but unless conditions are cold, it’s best to avoid this. Excessive heat can start to cook the fruit, reducing its keeping quality. Here are the keys to successful long-term storage:

• Place your pumpkins in a cool, dry, well-ventilated spot with temperatures around 10–15°C. Ideal locations could include a cool pantry, larder, under the house, or a shaded backyard shed.
• To ensure proper airflow, keep the pumpkins off the ground by placing them on shelves or racks, and space them out so they’re not touching.
• Place them on their sides to reduce the chance of moisture building up around the stems.
• For added protection, sit the fruit on a few sheets of newspaper or a shallow bed of straw to absorb any moisture that might form on the skin. Some gardeners also wipe the skins with vegetable oil to create a protective, water-repellent layer.
• If you’re battling rats or mice, consider getting creative by hanging your pumpkins in slings suspended from the ceiling.

Regularly check your stored pumpkins for any signs of softening or decay and promptly remove any that are starting to deteriorate. Most fruit will store beautifully for at least three months, keeping you in pumpkins through the winter. Some will last 12 months and retain an excellent eating quality.

Saving seed

If you’re growing open-pollinated (heirloom) pumpkins, you can save the seed to grow future crops. All things going well, the plants and fruit will be identical to the parent variety. Here’s the catch: pumpkin flowers are pollinated by bees, which often share pollen between neighbouring pumpkin plants. This results in hybrids, and it happens quite often in the pumpkin patch.
I once saved seed from a Butternut pumpkin that was grown at the same time my neighbour was growing Kent pumpkins. When I later planted the seed, the fruit was a curious mix: the familiar pear-like shape of a Butternut with the stripes and speckles of a Kent.
It was a fun surprise and still tasted great, but if you want to ensure your seeds grow true to type, a little extra effort is required.
The easiest solution is to grow only one pumpkin variety in your garden each summer. If that’s not an option, you’ll need to hand-pollinate.
To store your harvested seeds, wash off the pulpy coating and lay them out on paper towel to dry completely. Once dry, place them in an airtight container, label them with the variety and harvest date, and store them in a cool, dark, dry spot. Properly stored, pumpkin seeds can stay viable for up to four years.

For more information about making the most of your pumpkin harvest, get a copy of our Autumn 2025 issue (OG 156), available here.